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On our trip to the Middle Rhine area, we stopped by the remains of the famous Remagen Bridge, or the Ludendorff Bridge, as it was called. The bridge is gone, but the towers are still there, and on the Western bank, they house the Remagen Friedensmuseum.

Fun fact: the museum was financed in the 1970s, largely by selling stones from the bridge. It was built from stone form the hill on the other side, which is a black lava-like stone, as you can seen in the photo gallery.

There isn’t that much to see, but I liked the explanation about how the bridge came to be built, and the exhibit about the making of the 1969 movie ‘The Bridget at Remagen’, which was for the most part filmed in Chzechoslovakia, right until the invasion of the Russians. This meant the crew had to tail out of the country. This story is also explained in detail in the ‘After The Battle’ magazine, number 16.

As a first stop that day, we also visited the Arp Museum at Rolandseck, which is nearby. This is a very nice art museum. In case your wife or girlfriend is coming along, I can really recommend it 🙂

I’d like to share here the great pleasure we had of having Joris Nieuwint of The Battlefield Explorer as a guide for our latest battlefield tour in May. Our base of operations was Hotel Courage, right at the Nijmegen bridge. I also warmly recommend the hotel and the very friendly and helpful staff!

Joris speaks fluent English and knows his war history. On the first day, he guided us around Nijmegen, the Groesbeek Heigths, Grave, The Island etc. It was very enlightning to ‘walk the ground’ and see the lay of the land (and the bridges) with our own eyes. Joris is very knowledgable and has learned us a lot about the movie myths (and truths).

On the second day, we visited Arnhem, Oosterbeek and the surrounding area. It really brought home the massive scale of the operation, and the desperate situation for the British parachutists. We visited some sites I had never heard of or that I had only seen on TV and never quite understood how everything tied together. I’m sure there’s more we could have seen. In any case, Joris could keep on telling us about units, individual soldier’s stories, tactics and strategy.

We took part in the Sunset March at the bridge that was erected 10 years ago, on the sacred site of the infamous Waal River Crossing. Every day since the opening of this bridge, one ore more veterans have led an evening walk across the Waal, following the 48 street lights as they are lit pair by pair, at walking pace across the bridge.

Nijmegen is also a beautiful place to stay in its own right, and has much to offer to tourists. We enjoyed great food and drinks each day.

So don’t hesitate and book your tour with Joris. Tell him I said hello 😉